It seems that Gordon Vayo, one of this year’s WSOP Main Event November Niners, has done a little warm-up before returning to Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino towards the end of October. Earlier this week, the player topped the field of the WinStar River Poker Series $2,500 Main Event, taking home $587,120 after a five-way deal with his remaining opponents.
The tournament victory brought Vayo his biggest cash so far. However, being one of the November Niners in this year’s edition of the WSOP $10,000 Championship means that the player will leave the world’s most prestigious poker tournament with no less than $1 million. And if Vayo emerges victorious in the WSOP Main Event, he will scoop a first-place prize of $8 million.
The WinStar River Poker Series Main Event attracted as many as 1,054 participants who were looking for a share of the guaranteed $2.5-million prize pool. Eventually, the top 107 finishers left the tournament with a payout, with min-cash starting from $4,668.
The event was played over five days. It was kicked off with three starting flights played in three separate days. The remaining players returned for two more days of play. Day 3 of the tournament started with the nine finalists to be seated at the official final table. Vayo began nine-handed play as the chip leader. He had a total of 6,845,000 in chips, holding a considerable advantage over his opponents.
Action at the final table developed quite quickly and it took a relatively small amount of time for four players to be eliminated. At the time there were only five contenders left, the clock was stopped so as for them to discuss the terms of a potential five-way deal. Payouts were calculated based on the ICM formula. It seems that the five remaining players were all happy with what they were to collect from what had left of the prize pool as they indeed stroke a deal.
With Vayo holding the most chips at that point, he was declared the tournament’s champion. Ben Ector began his runner-up, taking home a total of $344,826. Dean Bobel collected $225,048 for taking 3rd place. Layne Flack finished 4th for a payout of $225,190. Grant Hinkle was the player to take 5th place, good for $207,669.
Long Duc Nguyen was eliminated in 6th place for a total of $70,054. Chino Rheem finished 7th for $54,288. Jeff Duvall took 8th place for $40,893. Daniel Fuhs scooped a $32,623 payout for his ninth-place finish in the tournament.
